Badlands – Bruce Springsteen

In 1978 Bruce Springsteen released his fourth album “Darkness on the Edge of Town”; Badlands is one of the most famous songs included in it.

The lyrics are quite easy to understand, they talk about a man that is down on luck, he is poor and wants to be rich, he is unhappy and he deserves a better tomorrow.

But what is really behind this song? It seems that Bruce, while writing the verses and describing the psychology of the man, was taking inspiration from the serial killer Charles Starkweather know in the late fifties for having killed eleven people in two months.

The killer was also protagonist of another song of Bruce, Nebraska…..so the question is…any badlands over there? Yes, it is full of them………… 1+1=2 isn’t?